Fazenda da Esperança
The Fazenda da Esperança (German: Court of Hope) is an international pastoral project that aims to help drug addicts , marginalized young people and adults, as well as addicts of all kinds, for a renewed life. In total, there are currently (as of the end of 2018) over 5000 young people living in over 140 facilities (fazendas) in Brazil and other Latin American countries, in Africa, the Philippines and Europe. The farm communities can best be compared with an institution with a self-help character.
The project, which originally came from Brazil, has existed in Europe for over 20 years and now includes 15 facilities there (as of the end of 2018). Seven of them are in Germany, five of which are for men (Gut Neuhof near Nauen in Brandenburg, Gut Bickenried near Irsee in Allgäu, the former Mörmter monastery near Xanten in North Rhine-Westphalia, Haus Sabelsberg in Boppard in Rhineland-Palatinate and Gut Hange near Freren in Lower Saxony) and two are for women ( Riewend in Brandenburg and Hellefeldin the Sauerland in North Rhine-Westphalia). There is also a men's fazenda in each of the Sta. Mary the Angel in Wattwil in Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Belgium, as well as a women's fazenda in Italy and France.
History of origin
Frei Hans Stapel ofm, a young Franciscan from Germany who had entered the southern Brazilian Order, came in 1979 as a pastor in a parish in Guaratinguetá , two and a half hours by car from São Paulo . There he began to live the words of the gospel concretely with the members of his new church . Many members of the parish were moved by the way in which Frei Hans met them and many parishioners quickly put their trust in him. In groups, they meditated on a word from the Gospel to see how it can be used in everyday life and later to exchange ideas with one another about what they had lived.
Nelson Giovanelli, a young man, was one of those who attended the Word of Life group. In the afternoons when he came home from work, his route always led him past a street corner where there was a drug hangout. The young people who used drugs there did not leave him indifferent. He tried to get closer to them and was interested in the handicrafts that a teenager made and sold of them. So he gradually gained his trust and became his friend. At some point, a youth at the drug meeting went up to Nelson and pleaded with him: “I can't look anymore to watch my mother cry. I feel that I can't do it alone. That's why I thought of you. Take me wherever you want. "
Months later, they lived in a small house with the other friends on the corner with the determination to begin a "rule of the gospel" lifestyle. They lived off their own work and shared the few things they had with each other. They made their living mowing lawns with an old machine that had been given to them. But first they had to overcome countless prejudices because the potential customers knew their past. This was the beginning of an extraordinary life experience, the beginning of a new "method" for recuperation of addicts. The Fazenda da Esperança was born in 1983.
Conception
The Courts of Hope offer young people a way to get away from drugs and other addictions. Adolescents and young adults between the ages of 14 and 35 can come to the fazenda and follow the recuperation path that lasts for 12 months. The word recuperation comes from the Latin word “recuperare” and that’s what it’s all about: to regain yourself and your life and to lead a responsible life. The aim is to prepare for a life without drugs, to work on the causes and backgrounds of the addiction and to cope with everyday life. The path of recuperation includes three important aspects, which the fazenda describes as the three pillars: the daily work, which is meaningful and helps to earn a living, the community life and the openness for a Christian spirituality that grows from the word of God .
Daily work
The first recuperators knew from the start that they could not ask their parents for help. They had to make a living from their own work. The work of the fazenda in Germany is therefore deliberately not financed by health or pension insurance.Instead, the maintenance of a fazenda consists of work, community of property and providence. The young people experience enormous joy when they see the results of their own work. In this way they regain the dignity they had lost through drugs and are freed from their lethargy. The community of goods shows them a way out of a life, the order of which has often been lost through the practice of theft.
In the fazenda communities in Brazil, among other things, agriculture is carried out, one works in the production of cleaning agents, has woodworking industries, bakeries or plastic waste is recycled. In Germany, the community is gradually finding work in logistics and shipping, but also in the production of its own sausages, bread, jams and juices. It doesn't depend on the type of work, all are equal in value. Many people are impressed by the example of people in recuperation and give their time, money or other kinds of things so that more and more fazendas can arise.
Community life
How important it is and how happy it is to live relationships and to recognize yourself as siblings should be conveyed to the recuperators through a communal life. To this end, numerous prejudices must be overcome at the beginning, which arise particularly from the individualism of our society today. It is often a challenge to live with people from other countries (often three to seven nations per farm). Although intercultural learning is not a common term here, it is a lived reality. The mistrust in the relationship with the other, who is sometimes seen as an enemy, must give way to brotherhood.
The recuperators live together in shared apartments between 10 and 15 people. Several times a week they meet for a kind of meeting to talk about their lives. In the "exchange of the word" they tell the experience with the Gospel, as concretely as possible and close to life and in the "exchange of the soul" they entrust one another with what has worked in their hearts, the challenges that the individual has experienced Falling and getting up again, the inner restlessness and the successes. The recuperators are connected to one another and often enough overcome trials and temptations of all kinds. They can lead the way and they understand more and more their own self and their neighbors. Such a residential group is led and accompanied by two coordinators, one of them himself a former dependent, who knows which phases and difficulties those entrusted to them go through and, if necessary, other volunteers. It is precisely because of this authentic community aspect that youth welfare offices see the fazenda as a formative place for minors. The fazenda in the state of Brandenburg and in Bavaria are also recognized as therapy instead of punishment according to § 35 , § 36 Narcotics Act BtMG.
A Christian spirituality that grows out of the word of God
In the encounter with the Christian life of the fazenda, the "being carried" of the beginning, the patience and the loving care, many recupers encounter true love and rediscover God. Some discover Him again after they have lost Him, others discover God for the first time because they have not yet experienced any Christian socialization. It is not about mission or religion as a substitute drug, but rather about giving an answer to the deep longing for "to be loved" and "to love", which often enough has not been satisfied. So for many, discovering love is the first step. Whether love is then also called God is up to everyone. Nobody has to believe in God or become Catholic on the fazenda. One only has to be present at the prayer times. Due to the great freedom lived, people of different faiths and atheists also feel comfortable on the fazenda.
Every day begins with mutual contemplation, in which the rosary or the Christ prayer take a central place. The recuperators often take up a new relationship with God step by step and experience themselves as children of God. You give yourself trustingly into his hands, discover the mercy of God and the chance for a new beginning. The daily gospel or reading holds an impulse to live for everyone. So the young people think together what the word of the scriptures means, exchange ideas and find a guiding principle every day that gives the day a framework. As little abstract as possible, rather realistic and simple.
Sponsor: the "Family of Hope" community
The “Family of Hope” (Portuguese: “Familia da Esperanca”) is a private association of believers, international in character, in accordance with the ecclesiastical code of CIC (canons 298-311 and 321-326) of the Catholic Church. The result of the life of a parish and the simple beginning of a handful of young people with their pastor Frei Hans Stapel, from 1983 onwards a spiritual community and a movement, the “Family of Hope”, developed. Ecclesiastically recognized in 1999 at the diocesan level in Brazil, the Pontifical Lay Council in Rome recognized the community in May 2010 as a "private international community of believers". Today well over 600 women and men belong to this spiritual family. As married or celibate - consecrated to God - they see their calling in the service of addicts. They form the heart of every fazenda community and to a large extent are former drug addicts themselves. Through their communal life of faith they open up the space for the risen Lord in the midst of his own and thus point to the actual center of the fazenda.
The members of the Family of Hope see themselves as a family of sisters and brothers who were collectively called to put God first in their lives and to give their own lives for human beings. The "Family of Hope" contains various complementary forms of life that are mutually connected to the kingdom of God: consecrated, celibate women and men, married couples, priests and those who are still in the decision-making process for their vocation and for whom the " Family of Hope "offers a path of discernment and accompaniment.
literature
- Christian Heim: Drug work: The other way of the Fazenda da Esperanca. In: Barth, Baumann, Eurich, Lienhard & Schmidt (eds.): Churches against poverty and exclusion. Heidelberg 2009. ISSN 1612-0388
- Cesar Alberto dos Santos: "We just started ... and it has spread!" The history, charisma and spirituality of the Fazenda da Esperança. Guaratingueta, Brazil 2010. ISBN 978-85-62332-07-4 .
- Cesar Alberto dos Santos & Klaus Brüschke: From a street corner into the world. The Fazenda da Esperança - what is it? Guaratingueta, Brazil 2007. ISBN 978-85-89736-88-6 .
Web links
- Website of the Fazenda da Esperança in Germany
- Website of the Fazenda da Esperança in Brazil
- Fazenda da Esperança in Switzerland
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website Fazenda Germany. Retrieved July 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Cesar Alberto dos Santos: We just started ... and it has spread! Guaratingueta, Brazil 2010, p. 28-29 .
- ↑ Cesar Alberto dos Santos: We just started ... and it has spread! Guaratingueta, Brazil 2010, p. 31-40 .
- ↑ a b Cesar Alberto dos Santos: We just started ... and it has spread! Guaratingueta, Brazil 2010, ISBN 978-85-62332-07-4 , pp. 61-70 .
- ↑ a b website Fazenda Germany / recuperation. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 23, 2016 ; accessed on July 23, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Website Fazenda Germany / Family of Hope. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 23, 2016 ; accessed on July 23, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
